IN THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1916, Page 5

IN THE AIR.

A SUCCESSFUL RAID. ' ON A TURKISH CAMP Cairo, March 28. !A! highly successful raid was made against the Turkish advanced ba&e at Bir-el-Hassanah, a hunared miles from the Canal. Six machines dropped forty bombs on the temporary reservoirs and military buildings. One airman descended to 200 feet behind the Turkish infantry, and opened fire with his machinegun. The Turks bolted, and the aviator attacked the officers' marquee, whence the officers also bolted. It has become the parctice of our airmen to disperse the enemy's patrols iir the desert with ma-chine-guns. A. FRUITLESS RAID. Received March 29, 5.5 p.m. Copenhagen, March 2S. The Politiken states that the British seaplanes failed to destroy, the Tondern Zeppelin sheds. BRITAIN'S AIR SERVICE, STINGING CRITICISM BY AN EXPERT. Received March 29, 7.50 p.m. London, March 28. In the House of Commons, Mr. Billing accused the Government of the murder of pilots in providing unsuitable and unsafe aeroplanes, with inferior engines. He said that within twenty mile 3 of London aeroplanes were obtainable superior to anything in Germany, yet the authorities were content with "rubbish from the Government factories. Our air service casualties had been 150 killed, 160 wounded, and 105 missing. Improperly armed aeroplanes, from .which it was impossible to see lu shoot, had been sent up in pursuit of Zeppelins, and the airmen were helpless.

AIR BOARD SUGGESTED. TO IMPROVE THE SERVICE. London, March 28. Lord Sydenham, in a letter to the Times, advocates an Air Board on the same lines as the old Ordnance Board. The air service should be able to act as a separate arm and develop its own school of scientific thought and systems of strategy.